The String
by shichou
Summary: Kaidoh's having an off day and Inui offers his assistance.


Title: The String  
  
Author: shichou  
  
Fandom: Prince of Tenis  
  
Type: yaoi/shonen-ai  
  
Pairing: Inui x Kaidoh  
  
Disclaimer: Don't own them.  
  
Notes: This was supposed to be chapter one in a series, but the muse never came back. So hopefully you enjoy it as a stand-alone.   
  
The String by shichou  
  
"GAAAAH!"   
  
Patrons of the park thought that there had to be a wild beast on the loose for the sound that came out of Kaidoh's mouth. 5 hours of diligent practice had led up to that yell of desperation. Stretches, raquet swings... nothing was working. Damn, things had even gotten worse. He was starting to cramp on his right shoulder and left leg.   
  
So when the mother and child who were strolling near his workout ground scurried away with a more frightened look than usual, Kaidoh only cared enough to let out a hiss.   
  
Had he lost it? He was 16 now. Two years of daily sweat to get the boomerang snake to perfection and stun audiences at competitions. He gripped his racket harder with his calloused hand and willed something, anything to work. Something was even worse, he could feel the pain and it hurt. Normally when he worked out it was all about pushing himself, pain mixing with the sheer pleasure of stretching ones limit. But, right now every muscle in his body was starting to ache and he could feel one of the callouses starting to pop and blister.   
  
The mamushi slumped lower than his usual stance and closed his eyes. Think. You're Kaidoh Kaoru, the mamushi, people fear you on and off the courts. One day of off practice and you're yelling like a little girl. "Che." yeah that's right, nothing was going to stop him now. He spent more hours running each single day than having one practice go wrong in a thousand.   
  
"It seems you're in at an 80% chance for injury now, Kaidoh." Kaidoh's head snapped up to see Inui flipping through his black notebook a methodical daze. Great, just the person he didn't want to see. If anyone knew him on the Seigaku Tennis Team it was Inui. Kaidoh felt a cold shiver rush up his back thinking of how accurate Inui's predictions were.   
  
"...you're putting too much pressure on your pivot foot when you go in to swing and there's an obvious cramp in your shoulder from swinging without a proper support." Damn him. He didn't need a fucking book to be told that, and having someone spew out your weakness at your most vulnerable wasn't going to sweeten his mood.   
  
"Tch." Kaidoh could only respond. He was never entirely sure how to act in front of Inui. What do you in front of the man that sees everything?   
  
"The problem basically, you're putting 50% more power into your swing than you need to. Your boomerang snake is as much about finesse is as it is about power. You're sacrificing control for power and losing your swing."   
  
Kaidoh's eyes widened and the information finally flowed through him. There he was doing it his way of training. Doesn't work? Swing harder. Still doesn't work? Swing 200 times until your body hurts and you might get it. Goddamnit, this is why he had to ask for the other boy's help 2 years ago. As angry as he was at himself, he wasn't going to sacrifice his swing to some burst of anger. Kaidoh hissed and his world slowly came back into focus.   
  
"Can you help me, sempai?" Kaidoh stood perfectly straight and looked directly at Inui, through his thick glasses into those brown eyes flecked with amber. Kaidoh was a proud man, but proud men knew when they needed to sacrifice pride for the sake of their training.   
  
One day when Kaidoh was 7 and fell out of a tree trying to get a scared kitten out of a tree, he walked home on a badly sprained leg. After Kaidoh's mother gave him a stern scolding to and from the doctor's office. Kaidoh wobbled into the house with a taped up ankle. There Kaidoh's father was waiting for him looking stern and unmovable, blocking his view to go to his room. Kaidoh's father leaned over and held the boy's shoulders by big calloused hands and stared him straight in the eye and said "When a man needs help, he asks. That's the pride of a man."   
  
He didn't have a taped up ankle, but this was definitely the time for outside help.  
  
"I think I have an experiment to demonstrate how to fix your swing." Inui said mysteriously as he slung his bag off his shoulder and went rummaging around in it.   
  
Kaidoh's eyes glazed over, sure a man needs to ask for help, but will he have to ask for help from someone else when Inui returns with some strange drink concoction. He was shifting uncomfortably and wondering what in the hell this experiment involved. As any Seigaku regular in junior and highschool knew, Inui was as dangerous off the court as he was on.   
  
Inui stood up from rustling in his bag and brought back a spool over nylon racket string. Racket string? "Sempai?" Kaidoh asked curiously.  
  
Inui walked away from the shaded tree were Kaidoh was practicing and further to a thicker patch of trees. "Follow me, Kaidoh."   
  
The kouhai had no choice, but to follow his sempai. Why the string? He kept asking himself. He was still akwardly carrying his racket which had been restringed that previous weekend. Inui stopped when they had a small clearing in the middle of the trees. Hidden from obvious eyesight of pedestrians on the sidewalk. "Lay down and put down your racket." Inui said calmly.   
  
"Lay down?" Kaidoh's eyes were nervously shifting.   
  
"Kaidoh, have I ever given you bad advice?" Well... no not really, Kaidoh pondered. No crazy juices during their practice sessions together and becoming a doubles team was the best thing to happen to both of their games.   
  
Kaidoh set his racket gingerly against a tree and then laid down on his back with his hands crossing his chest. "Put your hands to your side, Kaidoh." and Kaidoh did as he was instructed.   
  
Then, Inui with string in one hand had knelt over Kaidoh, with his legs straddling Kaidoh's waist. Kaidoh's eyes shifted to the right and he nervously moved his head to look at the trees. Something, anything, but at the man straddling him and the uncomfortable feeling he felt being so close.   
  
"Look at me, Kaidoh." Inui commanded gently. It was somehow the way in which he asked, no questions to ask back, that made Kaidoh do every training and eventually become doubles partners with him. There was a peace somewhat in leaving yourself in the hands of someone you knew highly capable.   
  
Inui started to unravel the string until he had one piece pulled taut the width of his chest. The plastic string made uncomfortable squeaking noises that felt somehow louder than the surrounding birds or whisper of the wind. Then, Inui knelt down closer and closer until the string was over the bridge of Kaidoh's nose and pressed tightly against his face into both sides of the ground.   
  
"...ah. What are you..."   
  
"Try to escape me, Kaidoh." Inui piercing gaze stared straightly into Kaidoh's own eyes.   
  
Kaidoh moved his head left and right, but to no avail. The string would only cut deeper into Kaidoh's nose. He tried to shift his own body, but that only brought upon an uncomfortable friction between him and the sempai above him and didn't move the string from the bridge of his nose. Kaidoh hissed.  
  
Damn. One tiny stupid piece of string. Inui was smirking now and his face terribly close to Kaidoh's since he had to pin the string on both sides of Kaidoh's head. Kaidoh kept shifting, trying to find a way, but nothing was fucking working. The string just kept cutting deeper into the tender skin of his nose. 5 hours of practice, sweaty and frustrated and now with the littlest amount of effort Inui was able to restrain him completely. He was insanely angry at his own self. Kaidoh's eyes flashed brightly with a fighting spirit. Inui opened his eyes wider that the boy was still struggling.   
  
In one swift motion Kaidoh's hand snaked out and grabbed Inui's wrist and caught him off balance. Inui landed with a thud as he was rolled off Kaidoh and now he was on the ground on his back. The same position Kaidoh was in only moments earlier. Kaidoh ripped the string out of his sempai's hand and threw it away from them. He got on top of his sempai and pressed on the taller boy's shoulders keeping him down.   
  
5 hours of stress plus the little torture game his sempai had planned out for him. Kaidoh was past angry. Angry would have been scared of the look in Kaidoh's eyes right now and ran home. Inui, however, wasn't struggling. His glasses were a little askew, but Inui still had the same impassive look on his face. Kaidoh was disgusted. He didn't want to push Inui's buttons he wanted to smash them. Anything to wipe away the useless 5 hours and too many moments feeling utterly defenseless in front of someone.   
  
Kaidoh knelt down futher and mashed his lips with Inui's. No one but dear romantics could call this a kiss. It was sloppy and teeth smacked against lips. Still, he kept doing it. Pushing his tongue into Inui's mouth and pushing hard against Inui's lips. I bet you didn't calculate that was all Kaidoh could think.   
  
This felt so damn good. Not because either of them was skilled, far from it. But, this was the first thing that felt controllable in 6 hours. Finally, when he was breathless he let up and pushed down on Inui's shoulder's to get some distance in between Inui and himself to look and see a look of shock. But, it wasn't there.   
  
A tongue snaked out and Inui tasted his own lips. That look wasn't at all the one Kaidoh wanted him to have. Inui, looked... sexy. His hair was pushed around by the grass and his mouth was red from the ardent kissing.   
  
Kaidoh recoiled, and in one swift motion grabbed his racket and started running away from the park. He didn't even care that he left his gym bag, he just wanted to run, no matter how hard it hurt. Feet against pavement, running so fast he could stop and rewind time. Or atleast he hoped. No science freak was ever going to kissing him again.   
  
Inui was shocked, actually. With a laugh that shocked more patrons of the park than Kaidoh's scream he was excited that this was going even ahead of his own calculated schedule. 


End file.
